How to Treat the Past

Xiao Ma (Smile) (any/all pronouns), based in Suzhou, China, is currently studying literature and visual arts at Bennington College.Smile's understanding of love is what led her to create art; her work offers a narrative and photographic exploration of love through observations of human interactions, emotions, and social events.

This set of photos is a protest in challenging the concept of time. They were taken in different times and spaces, but connected through human relations and emotional journeys that lead to possible growth. Photos are my way of approaching the world and memories, I believe the beauty of them reveals in their ability to redefine what vanishes and rebuild upon ashes.